Business Solution

To link with referring physicians, Beth Israel signed up [...]]]> Beth Israel Medical Center, part of the five-hospital Continuum Health Partners in New York City, was receiving requests from radiology centers and physician groups to file reports electronically. Being able to insert patient test results from its radiology information system directly into the physician’s electronic medical record (EMR) system would eliminate delays from faxing or the need to actively seek out results through cumbersome portals. A longtime technology innovator in radiology, Beth Israel also wanted to stay on the leading edge and build closer working relationships with referring providers.

Business Solution

To link with referring physicians, Beth Israel signed up with CriticalKey and began rolling out KeyEngine health information exchange (HIE) technology. KeyEngine is the only HIPAA-compliant HIE software with an integrated Master Patient Index, which identifies patients and matches them with their records. As the first step of an aggressive five-year rollout to referring physicians across New York, Beth Israel’s radiology department implemented the software with the 80 physicians in more than a half-dozen offices that make up Manhattan’s Physician Group (MPG).

Business Benefits

Within a month of going live, Beth Israel was sending MPG between 100 and 140 radiology reports daily. “We experienced a significant improvement in productivity and doctor and patient satisfaction right from the start,” said Steve Vickner, Chief Information Officer at MPG. “In our first week alone, we were able to reassign a full-time employee whose sole job had been tracking down results.”

Beyond the immediate benefits of improved staff productivity and faster delivery of results, the CriticalKey technology offers long-term business benefits. “This capability is helping us build partnerships with our physicians,” said Marc Katz, Corporate Director of Radiology at Beth Israel and Continuum. “This is a service to physicians, especially large groups, that differentiates us.”

Business Solution

Medstar teamed up with CriticalKey to enhance its service by automating the exchange of information with referring physicians. Since launching CriticalKey’s KeyEngine® technology, Medstar can electronically receive diagnostic test orders and send results directly into the patient’s record [...]]]> A mid-sized medical laboratory that’s been serving the Chicago area since 1974, Medstar Laboratory Inc. wanted to deliver faster service to current customers while maintaining its long tradition of providing high quality and accurate results. Already handling tens of thousands of tests each day for providers in Illinois, Indiana and Wisconsin, Medstar also wanted to expand throughout the entire Midwest.

Business Solution

Medstar teamed up with CriticalKey to enhance its service by automating the exchange of information with referring physicians. Since launching CriticalKey’s KeyEngine® technology, Medstar can electronically receive diagnostic test orders and send results directly into the patient’s record in the ordering physician’s electronic medical record (EMR) system. The only HIPAA-compliant HIE software with an integrated Master Patient Index, the KeyEngine® technology identifies patients and matches them with their records. During the first year, CriticalKey linked Medstar to more than 70 physicians that were using a total of 25 different EMRs.

Business Results

With KeyEngine, Medstar improved turnaround time for getting test results in front of physicians, building closer ties to its referral base by increasing convenience and satisfaction. In addition, it cut staff costs tied to manually tracking down and routing paper results and was able to reassign those employees to clinical lab work.

At the same time, the electronic capability has opened up fresh growth opportunities through new services. Using KeyEngine, Medstar overcame a limitation of its laboratory information system and can now electronically feed test orders outbound to another lab.

So Medstar has initiated a business relationship with a specialty lab, which provides unqiue cardiac biomarker testing. Medstar can automatically pass along an order to the specialty lab and send the results directly to the ordering provider’s EMR. As a result, Medstar has created new relationships with cardiologists needing the biomarker test for patients.

The lab company is testing the KeyEngine technology with two more prospective partners, a toxicology testing company and a health prevention screening company. “The technology from CriticalKey is game-changing for new business development,” said Charles Dressner, Business Development Manager at Medstar.

February 20, 2011-HIMSS, Orlando, FL–CriticalKey, LLC has released its KeyEngine 2.0 technology for hospitals, a platform to electronically broker orders, distribute results, and insert electronic results directly into a referring physician’s EMR. The core technology has been in use in clinical reference laboratories as KeyEngine 1.0 for some time.

The KeyEngine is the exclusive interoperability engine at one of the largest privately held clinical reference labs in the Midwest, MedStar Laboratory Inc.. “We have outsourced the making of all the incoming order and outgoing result connections between our Lab Information [...]]]> Hospital-specific technology connects connecting radiology and lab to physician EMRs 

February 20, 2011-HIMSS, Orlando, FL–CriticalKey, LLC has released its KeyEngine 2.0 technology for hospitals, a platform to electronically broker orders, distribute results, and insert electronic results directly into a referring physician’s EMR. The core technology has been in use in clinical reference laboratories as KeyEngine 1.0 for some time.

The KeyEngine is the exclusive interoperability engine at one of the largest privately held clinical reference labs in the Midwest, MedStar Laboratory Inc.. “We have outsourced the making of all the incoming order and outgoing result connections between our Lab Information System and our client physician EMR systems,” says Charlie Dressner, Business Development Manager at Medstar. “We are pleased with CriticalKey’s ability to manage and implement these connections.”

In light of the push for interoperability in health care, KeyEngine has valuable applications for hospitals that serve large populations of referring physicians. “It is our goal to improve the connection and relations between hospitals and their referring base”, asserted Mike Gaeta, vice president of business development for CriticalKey. “We understand the competitive hospital operating environment today, and having the ability to provide results automatically, electronically, gives participating hospitals an advantage. Further, if physicians want to take advantage of some of the available federal funding, they too must get connected to service providers in order to meet meaningful use criteria.”

One of the unique features of the KeyEngine is its embedded Master Patient Index, or MPI. The MPI allows for the cross-referencing of patient identifiers across different patient domains. “Without the MPI, KeyEngine would be just another interface engine. With the MPI, it’s an interoperability workhorse,” said Gaeta.

About CriticalKey 

CriticalKey, LLC is a healthcare software and services company that helps providers build private electronic health information exchanges (HIEs.) Offering the only HIPAA-compliant HIE software with an integrated Master Patient Index, CriticalKey can seamlessly and securely link any health information systems to send and receive results, orders and other health data. Based in Oak Brook, IL, CriticalKey and its KeyEngine technology deliver immediate benefits and fast returns by fostering closer working relationships among providers, loeering costs, and improving care and provider and patient satisfaction.

CriticalKey, the CriticalKey logo, and KeyEngine are trademarks of CriticalKey, LLC., Oak Brook, IL, USA. All rights reserved.

Contact: 

Lois Padovani
Padovani Communications Inc.
630-241-1430
l.padovani@comcast.net

Mike Gaeta
Vice President, Business Development
201-819-2257
mgaeta@criticalkey.com